Chapter 1095 Super Big Scam
In Karl's villa, Karl was applying a boiled egg to his face. Xiao Peng was sitting there smoking, while Chen Zetao was looking at Karl angrily.
Xiao Peng coughed twice, breaking the silence in the room: "Um... can either of you tell me what happened?"
Chen Zetao snorted coldly after hearing this: "Karl? Even your name is fake now? Mr. Manfred Schmidt?"
Carl rubbed his face with egg and said, "Carl is my real name!"
Chen Zetao said, "You're such a big liar! No one believes you when you tell the truth these days!"
After hearing this, Karl asked, "How much did I cheat you out of? Two million marks? One and a half million marks? Is that a big sum?"
Chen Zetao sneered, "Yeah, it's not much! You swindled 4 billion! Xiao, let me introduce you to this guy, he was a super con man back then!"
"Hiss!" Xiao Peng gasped after hearing this: "Four billion scammed? Back then? When did it happen?"
Chen Zetao blinked. "About twenty years ago. This guy swindled four billion German marks!"
Xiao Peng was completely stunned. Twenty years ago? Four billion Deutsche Marks was about seven billion US dollars, which would be about twenty billion US dollars today!
Oh my god! Who on earth is this Karl?
"Isn't this similar to the 'Wirecard Incident'?" Xiao Peng said in shock.
'Wirecard' is a German company founded in 1999. Its main business is payment. Together with large companies such as Adidas and Mercedes-Benz, it is one of the components of the German DAX30 index. Anyway, it is a very awesome company. In the beginning, it specialized in managing online gambling and erotic content payments. Later, it entered the financial industry and was known as the "European Alipay". In fact, they are indeed strategic partners of "Alipay".
However, when the company released its 2019 annual report in 2020, it was discovered that €1.9 billion in trust accounts listed in the financial statements did not exist. The stock market plummeted upon hearing the news, and the company filed for bankruptcy protection a week later. The company's $28 billion market capitalization evaporated overnight, leaving countless shareholders with nothing. Several senior executives were arrested on suspicion of defrauding creditors, and the chief operating officer remains at large. This incident has been called Germany's largest post-World War II fraud case.
Chen Zetao was filled with disdain after hearing this: "Just looking at the amount of money, Wirecard did indeed scam more people, but if you consider currency fluctuations and inflation, this guy's scam was far more influential than Wirecard's!"
Karl was anxious: "It's been decades, and I've accepted legal sanctions. What else do you want from me?"
Chen Zetao said, "Go tell that to those people you cheated and bankrupted them all!"
Carl fell silent after hearing this.
Seeing the atmosphere wasn't good, Xiao Peng coughed dryly twice and asked, "Who can tell me what happened back then?"
Chen Zetao pointed at Carl and said, "This gentleman was once known as 'BIG MONEY'. You can imagine how awesome he is, right? Let me put it this way, if it were back in his prime, you'd be honored to be invited to his banquet!"
After hearing this, Xiao Peng was shocked - isn't this similar to his current situation?
Huh? Why are you still a little proud?
Chen Zetao said, "No one knows how much assets he has anyway. He has properties all over the world. These are the ones you hid back then, right? Xiao, do you know the Baden-Baden International Airport in Karlsruhe?"
Xiao Peng nodded. "Isn't it Karlsruhe in Baden-Württemberg, Germany? Walter and I have been there. His house is quite close to it. I remember it was right next to the Rhine River. The airport there isn't big, though. Although it's called an 'international airport,' there aren't any international flights. I don't remember exactly. I only remember there were flights to cities like Berlin, Hamburg, and Frankfurt."
Chen Zetao said, "It turns out that Baden-Baden International Airport is his private property!"
"Puff!" Xiao Peng spurted.
"Isn't it strange? He has a jet and three yachts! So he just bought an airport there, which can accommodate both planes and yachts!" Chen Zetao said.
Xiao Peng raised his hand and asked, "Can I know how they managed to defraud so much money? This is too exaggerated, isn't it?"
Chen Zetao snorted coldly and explained, "The thing he bought doesn't even exist!"
"Uh..." Xiao Peng was confused.
Chen Zetao explained, "In the 1970s and 1980s, a new infrastructure technology called 'trenchless underground pipeline construction technology' became popular. Have you ever seen underground pipelines laid? They all require digging up the ground, laying the pipes, and then filling the road, right? Back then, a new technology was born. It didn't require digging up the ground. Instead, it required digging a small hole in the ground and carrying out the work autonomously underneath, thus avoiding damaging the surface!"
"This technology is quite good!" Xiao Peng was stunned. "In the 1970s and 1980s? Then why hasn't it become popular yet?"
"Limitations!" Chen Zetao said. "If there are already pipelines or rock underground, this equipment won't work! Carl bought the patent for this technology and a hundred machines, intending to sell them, but few people took them! So he came up with this ridiculous 'sale-leaseback' scheme: selling the machines to a bank, using the money the bank gave him to pay rent, then renting the equipment out again, profiting from the difference and becoming a sub-landlord."
Xiao Peng looked at Chen Zetao. He didn't believe that a "sub-landlord" could cheat so much money.
As expected, Chen Zetao continued, "He used false advertising to improve his business, then entered the capital market and deceived investors. He used money borrowed from banks to sponsor various sporting events, bought luxury homes around the world and hosted various celebrity gatherings. He used this method to make people believe that his company was profitable, and then created fake orders to pretend that business was booming to defraud investors and banks of their money. Back then, his company was known as the 'new giant of German mechanical engineering.' You can imagine how big his scam was, right? After he became rich, politicians and wealthy people began to curry favor with him. For example, Baden-Baden Airport was sold to him by the government after being personally persuaded by Morlock, the leader of the ruling party in Baden-Württemberg. The deal was done." That day, high-ranking officials like the Prime Minister were all present! Damn it, I was fooled back then! Do you know how much the country needs technology! I thought this was some amazing new technology! I spent 1.5 million German marks on such a piece of junk! And do you know how I bought it? I begged him on my knees to sell it to me! I threw away all my dignity in exchange for a piece of junk to send back to China! It was 1995! At that time, the entire country's foreign exchange reserves were only over 10 billion! Do you know how I couldn't hold my head up wherever I went? In 2000, he was arrested and sentenced to six years. I heard that after he was released from prison, he lived in Mallorca, Spain, but I couldn't find him. So you were hiding here! Do you think it's wrong for me to punch him?
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